5 More Tips to help with the agony that is toothache.

Few people can withstand the pain and agony of a toothache. Whether it’s two in the morning, finals week at school, or a particularly busy day at the office, toothaches make our lives miserable. The dentist’s office may be a long drive away, and you may have not set up an appointment days earlier. While some people would bravely go through a day with a toothache, it’s only a matter of time before they finally surrender to the agonizing, writhing pain. If you do not have some painkillers on hand or you’re a long way from seeing a dentist, here are five simple ways to dull the pain of a throbbing toothache.
Suck In Air
For aching teeth that are not sensitive to air, you can try to suck in air towards the tooth. You can use a drinking straw or shift your tongue to draw air into the offending tooth. The air-sucking technique works a lot like the small air blower your dentist uses to dry out yourteeth before an extraction, a root canal session, or a dental filling procedure. The aim is to keep your tooth as dry as possible, which makes the nerves in the pulp less sensitive to the pain.

Try Sugarless Gum
Sometimes contact with air is all that’s needed to cause a throbbing toothache. Dentists use substances like gutta-percha or silver amalgam to fill in cavities and other dental caries, which are a major cause of toothache. While there is no substitute for a professional dental filling procedure, you can opt for a temporary solution before you can go to a dentist.

Sugarless chewing gum is a good way to prevent air coming into contact with a painful cavity. After you have chewed all the flavoring out of the gum, it should be sticky enough to serve as a temporary filling for your cavity, at least for the next few hours until you can get to the dentist. Spicy peppermint gums also work well, as long as they are sugar-free. Chewing gum rich in sugar can irritate your already sensitive tooth, and will only prolong your agony.
Cold Water Remedy

Painful teeth that are not sensitive to low temperatures can be numbed with cold water. The neat thing about cold water is that it is always available from a refrigerator, a tap with hot/cold knobs, a water dispenser, or a convenience store. Cold water works particularly well for aching molars, impacted wisdom teeth, or a mild tooth abscess. The soothing feel of cold water can also soothe your nerves, and momentarily distract you from the pain. Here is a way to use the cold water remedy effectively:

• Do not use ice-cold water, carbonated beverages like soda or beer, or crushed ice. Use plain cold water from a water dispenser or a drinking fountain.
• Hold a small mouthful of cold water in your mouth, and swish it around to the painful tooth. Hold it as long as you can, and gently try to flush out the debris embedded in the cavities or crevices.
• Repeat the process until the pain subsides.

Hot Water Remedy
People with sensitive teeth may find the cold water remedy even more painful and agonizing than the toothache. Serious tooth decay problems can sometimes be made worse by the cold water remedy. If the painful tooth is sensitive to cold water, you can use hot water to dull the nerves inside the pulp. Hot drinks like coffee or tea can also help draw out some pus from abscessed teeth. Here is a way to use the hot water remedy effectively:

• Use water that’s hot enough for you to hold in your mouth. You can also try soups, as long as it is not a cream soup or a sweet soup. If you insist on drinking coffee or tea, do not add sugar or milk. Do not add cold water to cool down the drink; the point is that the liquid should be hot enough for you to hold in your mouth.
• Slowly drink half a mouthful of the liquid, but do not swallow it.
• Swish the liquid around your mouth to the offending tooth, and hold it there for about five seconds.
• Repeat the process until the pain subsides.

Brush Away
You can’t brush away the toothache, but brushing can help dislodge food particles stuck in crevices or cavities. Toothpaste also contains some chemicals that can partially numb the pain from the cavity or the gum line. Brushing is also a very helpful and welcome distraction. Brush as long as you can until you feel the pain subside, and then proceed with a hot water or cold water remedy.

These helpful remedies are not substitutes for a dental appointment, but are ways to help you cope with the pain of a toothache when you don’t have painkillers at hand, or if you do not have home remedies like clove oil or peppermint extract. There is no guarantee that these remedies will cure you of a toothache, because only a dentist can perform the necessary procedures to heal the painful tooth. At least, these remedies can help you get through a day without having to scream in horrifying agony.

Special thanks to http://www.nature.com/bdj/journal/v192/n11/full/4801449a.html for this fascinating insight to how our soldiers dealt with the agony of toothache

Toothache in the trenches

First World War literature abounds with accounts of toothaches experienced on the battlefields of France. In that most famous memoir Goodbye To All That Robert Graves⁸ relates 'Then I got toothache which forced me to take a horse and ride twenty miles to the nearest army dental station at corps headquarters. I found the dentist under the weather, like everyone else. He would do nothing at first but grumble what a fool he'd been to offer his services to the King at such a low salary. "When I think," he complained, "of the terrible destruction to the nation's teeth now being done by unqualified men at home, and the huge fees that they extract for their wicked work, it makes me boil with rage." There followed further complaints against his treatment at headquarters, and the unwillingness of the R.A.M.C. to give dentists any promotion beyond lieutenant's rank. Later he examined my tooth. "An abscess," he said. "No good tinkering about with this; must pull it out." So he yanked at the tooth irritably, and the crown broke off. He tried again, damning the ineffective type of forceps which the Government supplied, found very little purchase, and broke off another piece. After half an hour he had dug the tooth out in sections. The local anaesthetic supplied by the Government seemed as ineffective as the forceps. I rode home with lacerated gums.'

The poet Edmund Blunden⁹ described his wartime dental experiences 'Long tramps day and night ruined my feet, but I had to walk to Poperinghe in great misery to have a tooth put to rest or die in the attempt. In daylight one might be unlucky over getting a lift on that hazardous road, which could be seen between its trees from the German and from our front line. I was. The tooth was pulled, back I went, and saw again the tipsy water-tower and the sole surviving pinnacle along the road through Ypres with illogical happiness. By the station I noticed some newly installed howitzers, and there was a suspicious quickness among those now passing out of Lille Gate, but even so, the dentist had been settled with.......... I could dilate upon other drama that occurred towards July 31, 1917; there was, for instance, that tooth of mine, which our Irish doctor painfully extracted for me by muscular Christianity in the wood, surely the last afternoon we were there; as many of my signallers as were off duty stood around with a hideous pleasure, and one or two begged to offer their compliments on so great a fortitude!'

Gargoyle from unknown church in Southern France, 13th century (BDA Museum LDBDA C33)

The Irish poet and writer Monk Gibbon¹⁰while serving in France '... began to suffer tortures from toothache. Watson mocked at my groanings and writhings, although I assured him he had been just as bad over his chilblains. Mosse, whom I was beginning to like greatly, was more sympathetic and departed down the road one night to fetch me oil of cloves from his billet........

Joy-rides were few, unless one could count a trip or two to the Canadian dentist at the hospital in the Citadelle in Doullens. Though he was in no way responsible for my unit he accepted me as a patient during my worst throes and afforded me some temporary alleviation.......

Our first halt was at Authie and our horses found themselves back on their old lines. I was once more in the throes of toothache, and, after the meal, made my way to the hospital in the chateau to beg a doctor there to take mercy on me and to remove the tooth. But the offending molar deceived him, just as it had deceived my Canadian friend at the Citadelle, and I was assured that it would be a 'great pity to take it out'. After a chat about Ireland and the gift of some aspirin, I returned to my billet and, with the help of Mosse's oil of cloves, managed to get a reasonable night ignorant of what torments still lay ahead of me........

Billets for the night varied greatly. After being in the saddle all day one welcomed a comfortable bed, but not infrequently this involved us in long arguments with some old woman. Oil of cloves had become useless for my toothache. If anything it seemed to aggravate it. I had read somewhere in a comic paper of standing on one's head as a remedy, and, in desperation one night, kneeling up in my sleeping bag, I lowered my head until I was more or less in the position advocated. The diary recorded my tortures.

Nearly went mad. Crying, praying. Stand on head, and it at last stops and I get to sleep. Late getting up next morning and across to breakfast. I indignant with Haines because no fish cakes for brekker......

After a further bout of agonising toothache while on trek, I rode into St.Venant to a field ambulance. This dentist also wanted to stop the tooth. But I declared that it had had its last chance. Out it came, after putting up a forceful resistance. It was 'a divil' according to the dentist; quite hollow below the surface of the gum, and on the point of forming an abscess. Looking into its cavernous depths, I could understand the agony which it had caused me.